HEH: Obama Uses Bully Pulpit To Demand End Of Political Rhetoric. “I’m adding this one to my collection of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ injunctions from the prez, who is at his rhetorical best when accusing others of being at their rhetorical worst.”
Archive for 2011
July 6, 2011
LESSONS OF ARGENTINA CRISIS ignored in handling of Greece? “Originally published in October 2003, this policy review document was signed off by a then relatively unknown IMF official called Tim Geithner, now the US Treasury Secretary no less. Strangely enough, he seems entirely to have forgotten about this eight-year-old tome, whose candid and illuminating account of Argentina’s descent into economic and fiscal chaos, and the not inconsiderable role the IMF played in the process, provides an object lesson in how not to proceed.”
Plus: Enough of this Greek farce: everyone knows default is coming.
July 5, 2011
IS AMERICA the Jewish promised land?
Like the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil, the fact that they’re playing these cards so very early in the election cycle does smack of desperation.
UPDATE: Stuart Rothenberg: Are Obama’s Polls Worse Than Meet the Eye? I’m guessing the White House thinks so, or they wouldn’t be acting so desperate.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Sunglasses.
UPDATE: Reader Eric Beeby writes: “$97 is an excellent price for the Ray Ban RB3030 outdoorsman I have been wearing since 1973. And with Amazon Prime free shipping (which you sold me on some time ago) it is an unbeatable price. So I hit the ‘place order’ button. Thanks again for the heads up.” Glad to be of assistance. And thanks!
SO MY BROTHER JUST PHONED ME FROM ATOP THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, but what was really interesting was that it was a better cell connection than I usually get when he calls from Ohio.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
I’ve been traveling all over China for nearly 20 years and this has been my experience, too. I can yammer away uniterrupted for hours with someone half-way around the world as my train chugs through the Chinese countryside. Back home, I lose a call almost every time I’m on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and my own kitchen is a cellular-free zone..
That’s kind of sad.
AN OPINION ON ALL THE CASEY ANTHONY OPINIONS:
I have neither interest nor opinion on the Casey Anthony acquittal.
No offense to those who followed the trial. It is interesting. We all love a “truth-is-stranger-than-fiction” tale. (My weaknesses are natural disasters and survival stories.)
I do have an opinion on the reaction to the acquittal, though. The word that best describes this reaction: visceral. On Facebook, folks are lamenting how stupid we Americans are, or at least twelve particular Americans, and how broken our system is, and how really terribly awfully difficult it was to watch that terrible awful woman’s reaction to the verdict that frees her.
I’m thinking: why are you watching then? Why does her reaction matter to you? Who can judge a human’s reaction to the announcement of her fate? . . . I repeat, the system is set up to err on the side of letting the guilty free. It stinks, sometimes. The murderer gets away with it, sometimes.
That fact is proof that the system is still working.
We should be more alarmed about an unchecked prosecuting government than an unhinged partying woman who may have killed her own child.
Cold? Maybe. But it’s cold comfort for the innocent whom the state still managed to wrongfully convict, even under the “reasonable doubt” standard.
Which is worse? The guilty going free, or the innocent getting convicted? As a liberty lover with a healthy suspicion of state power, I say: the innocent getting convicted.
Read the whole thing.
Plus, a related question: “The last time you were summoned to Jury did you go or did you look for an excuse to duck it?”
STUBBORN BACK PAIN? Try massage.
AT LONG’S DRUG STORE, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Some of my Utah friends may find this particularly amusing.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Film School Edition. “As home-entertainment revenue declined in the last five years, studios reduced spending on scripts from new writers, cut junior staff positions and severely curtailed deals with producers who once provided entry-level positions for film school graduates. Yet applications to university film, television and digital media programs surged in the last few years as students sought refuge from the weak economy in graduate schools and some colleges opened new programs.”
FROM FRANK MUNGER: Alvin Weinberg’s post-war evaluation of Hitler’s nuclear program.
MORE ON Taxing Abortion.
SCIENCE: Autism experts skeptical of study linking disorder to environment. “Their data is so similar to everybody else’s, and yet they come up with another conclusion.”
DO-IT-YOURSELF HEALTH CARE REFORM: “Dr. Forrest runs a cash-only practice sees 16 patients a day at a maximum, works a 40 hour week and takes home more than the average family physician a year with a highly satisfied patient base that pays less than those in fee-for-service, insurance models.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Apparently a lot.
RICHARD EPSTEIN ON CORPORATE JETS: Would We Ever Ground Air Force One?
Recent estimates of the direct cost of flying Air Force One range from about $60,000 per hour on the low side to $181,000 per hour on the high side. None of these figures include the extensive advance planning and immense support services needed to coordinate activity on the ground, both in the United States and overseas. The presidential salary of $400,000 per year would be wiped out many times over if he had to pay, say, 10 percent of the jet’s direct costs.
Just think of the number of college scholarships and food inspection programs this nation could fund if it had the moral courage to make the president fly first-class commercial on international long hauls, take Amtrak for shorter trips, and use Skype for critical one-on-one negotiations. If the president could make this sacrifice for the nation, why can’t spoiled bank executives and industrial tycoons adopt similar cost saving measures?
My sage proposal shows how easy it is to don the mantle of a populist reformer. And how unwise. The thoughtful reader should not take long to see that it is every bit as foolish to condemn those corporate jet owners for their supposed over-indulgences as it is to condemn the president for his.
Read the whole thing. Related item here, with amusing Photoshop.
A GALLERY OF CLASSIC CAR ADS. The cars are better today, but the ads were better then.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on computers and accessories.
SCIENCE FICTION UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS TO SARAH HOYT, whose novel Darkship Thieves has won a Prometheus Award. Richly deserved, in my opinion, and she can be happy in the company of fellow winner George Orwell. (Bumped).
UPDATE: Here’s the press release. And here’s a list of other winners, including Neal Stephenson, Harry Turtledove, Vernor Vinge, etc.
STEVE HAYWARD MAKES the conservative case for higher taxes. I agree with him, and make a similar case — the libertarian case for higher taxes? — here.
Blog post above, full article here. (Bumped).
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS HAS questions for the Gaza “flotilla.”
I GUESS THE MORAL IS, “DON’T TALK TO THE COPS?” Casey Anthony Acquitted of First Degree Murder, Convicted Of Lying To Investigators.
THE DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN CASE and media bias. In partial defense of the media, he acted awfully guilty. But it is indeed fair to ask what other stories are being missed based on preconceptions.
MOE LANE TAKES ON “pious back-patting.”